I don't know what on-line viewing sequence led me this morning to the articles on the murders of Lawrence and Glenna Shapiro on January 30 of this year in Paradise Valley, Arizona. I expect, from the amount of on-line coverage given the murders all over the globe, that if I had television I would have learned about them before now.
I do not intend to publish a photo of this physically, and from all accounts spiritually, beautiful couple in their 70s. Anyone interested can search their names and get the details of the case which, from what I read this morning, has been solved with the arrest of seven people.
I am blogging about the case because, having lived in Phoenix for seventeen years and worked in both Phoenix and Scottsdale, I am familiar, not only with the area in which the Shapiros lived and died, but with one of the Paradise Valley town officials quoted in some of the articles, with the area where the Shapiros' burning vehicle was found in the early morning hours after their deaths, with the fast food restaurant where the alleged murderer asked some of his accomplices to meet him following the murders and the hotel where they checked in to divvy up the items he had stolen from the Shapiro home.
In addition, having worked for many years taking and transcribing meeting minutes for the boards of directors of numerous homeowners associations (HOAs) in the area and lastly serving as an on-site manager of a large up-scale gated HOA in far north Scottsdale, the news of their murders affected me more than if I had not been involved in the HOA business and if they had occurred in another part of the country.
The Shapiro's home, which was invaded and where they were killed, was at 40th & Camelback in Paradise Valley. My first full-time job after I moved to Phoenix in 1993 was in a high-rise office building at 40th and Thomas just south of Camelback. My hairdresser was located just a mile or two north of there near Scottsdale Road and Shea Boulevard. I occasionally drove Camelback when traveling between Phoenix and Scottsdale.
I noted this morning in one of the articles I was reading that a homeowner who served on the board and eventually as president of one of the homeowners associations in Paradise Valley for which I took board meeting and annual meeting minutes for many years is now Vice-Mayor of the town.
The burning black convertible Jaguar that was found by police and led, through its registration, to the Shapiro's home, which was also found in flames with their bound bodies inside, had been abandoned behind a shopping mall at Union Hills and 7th Street just a few blocks east of my last residence, the same mall that houses a branch of a credit union at which I still maintain an account and one of my favorite Goodwill Stores.
According to some accounts, the alleged shooter Michael Crane asked two of his accomplices to meet him at a Taco Bell at 28th Street and Bell. Many years ago I rented a really cute condo with a beehive fireplace and French patio doors just a few blocks west of there. Following their rendezvous at the Taco Bell, Crane and his accomplices checked into a Red Roof Inn
near Interstate 17 and Bell Road to sift through and divvy up the items he had stolen from the Shapiros. I drove by that motel frequently going from the west side of Phoenix to the east, and if I'm not mistaken, my sister stayed there one time when she visited me.
In my final job before I retired, I served as an on-site manager for an upscale homeowners association in far north Scottsdale. It was a gated community and we took security very seriously, even going so far as to pay members of the security force overtime to park at a gate for an entire weekend when it malfunctioned and couldn't be repaired until the following Monday. I must admit I often thought homeowners were unnecessarily concerned; however, according to a February 9, 2012, Arizona Central on-line article by by Ofelia Madrid and JJ Hensley, Crane had been a passenger in a vehicle that was stopped around 1 a.m. January 11 of this year near Pima Road and Dynamite Boulevard. That is very near the HOA I managed. The pickup truck was stopped after an area resident called police and reported two men ringing his doorbell repeatedly. When he didn't respond, they left, but he found his garage door halfway open and the canvas tarp on his collector car pulled back. They told the police officer who stopped them they were looking for the home of an acquaintance, and after he searched their pickup and found nothing suspicious, they were allowed to go on their way. I wonder, and expect he does too, how close to death that homeowner came.
Madrid and Hensley also reported that as far back as August, 2009, "Crane was a passenger in a vehicle driven by Brittany
Beinhauer" when it was stopped by Scottsdale police "for not having a
working brake light."
"Crane gave the officer a false name and when questioned about it, ran
away. Officers searched the neighborhood around Scottsdale and McDowell
roads [another area where I took minutes and visited nearby thrift shops--comment mine].
"Witnesses saw a man jumping fences and one reported that a Schwinn bicycle was stolen from a yard.
Officers caught up with Crane, who had an outstanding felony warrant,
and tackled him to the ground. He served 20 days in jail for criminal
trespassing and failure to obey a police officer.
"Crane was jailed in December on suspicion of eight felonies,
including illegally possessing weapons and body armor as well possession
of a stolen vehicle, but was released six days later because
prosecutors needed more time to develop their case...." [Three times was not the charm--comment mine].
Both Crane and Beinhauer are among those arrested in connection
with crimes related to the Shapiro murders and possibly the murder of Bruce Gaudet, a cigar salesman found dead inside
his burning Phoenix home a few days before the Shapiro murders.
Even though I now live 600 miles from the scene of these murders, they seem too close. Have you come close to murder? Teddee
No comments:
Post a Comment